Rachel Reeves, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced at the end of July that the 2-mile tunnel project under the prehistoric site of Stonehenge had been cancelled. Located along the A303 and intended to link Amesbury to Berwick Down in Wiltshire, the project was intended to reduce traffic and journey times on the busy A303 motorway.
The cancellation of the tunnel comes as the new British government announces a series of budget cuts. The funding for the tunnel, decided by previous Conservative governments, amounted to 1.7 billion pounds sterling (two billion euros).
“Unesco welcomes Labour government’s decision to cancel road tunnel under World Heritage site of Stonehenge”said CEO Audrey Azoulay. In 2023, the Stonehenge Alliance and Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) associations signed a petition criticizing the project for going against the World Heritage Convention. The courts had already suspended construction of the tunnel in July 2021 following the mobilization of environmental activists and archaeologists concerned about the future of the site.
Stonehenge is the “the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world”according to UNESCO, which declared it a World Heritage Site in 1986. Built between 3,000 and 2,300 BC, it is one of the most impressive and architecturally important megaliths. Stonehenge remains an enigma for archaeologists who have still not deciphered the meaning of this group of stones, which is considered to be a place of worship or a point of observation of the solstice. A recent scientific discovery has shown that the sandstone used for the altar stone on the site came from Scotland, more than 750 km from Stonehenge.
